January 1, 1955 to December 31, 1973

On the warm spring morning of April 7, 1957, Rachel Carson visited the town of Duxbury, Massachusetts. It was a beautiful day with the sun’s warming rays radiating down upon a lush meadow of yellow agrimony and lavender aster leading up to a quaint creek flowing peacefully through a patch of forest. It was here that Carson had visited once before as a girl and fell in love with its serenity. She...

On August 13, 1957, Daisy and Bill Myers moved their family to a well-developed suburb in Levittown, Pennsylvania. They were just like every other eager newcomer to arrive in Levittown, except that they were black. As news of this Levittown “first” quickly spread, so did the curiosity. Drivers continuously circled the house in their automobiles, trying to catch a glimpse of the first African...

Upon driving up to their new home at 43 Deepgreen Lane, Daisy Myers was filled with doubt, recalling that she repeatedly asked herself, “what would be the extent of our ostracism? Would we be able to sleep comfortably?” as she studied the four law officers standing on the lawn of her address in the Dogwood Hollow Section of Levittown. These questions regarding the neighborhood reaction to the...

On August 5, 1957, groups of Philadelphia teenagers met up at the WFIL studio on Market Street to partake in the popular dance show phenomenon, American Bandstand. The show, hosted by Dick Clark, debuted nationally on August 5 as a product of the American Broadcast Company (ABC). In J.P. Shanley’s New York Times review of American Bandstand’s premiere from August 6,...

Peninsula residents of the Bay Area were fuming as the construction of Interstate 280 was planned to run through the heart of Los Altos. E.O. Huttlinger, citizen of 33 years and realtor of Los Altos, was a prominent figure in the protest of the highway proposal. In August of 1957, E.O. Huttlinger addressed his concerns of 11 years to the Division of Highways in San Francisco through a four-page...

On August 19, 1957 an African American couple named Bill and Daisy Myers moved their family into an all-white Levittown in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. The Myers had three children and the house in Levittown had everything they wanted. Daisy recounted, “it was a rancher with a third bedroom for our baby girl, a garage for Bill, and a yard for the children to play in.” However, excited as she...

In 1957 the Soviets launched a beach ball sized (23-inch) sphere named Sputnik into low earth orbit to the amazement of scientists all over the world. What does this have to do with the modern Internet? The answer is everything. This Soviet feat of engineering caused a chain of events that would change the world forever. In the process of compiling this article, we have examined numerous...

On December 11, 1958, John F. Kennedy a Democratic Presidential candidate composed a personal letter to Eleanor Roosevelt. He wrote, “I note from the press that on last Sunday afternoon, December 7, on the ABC television program College News Conference, you stated…that Senator Kennedy’s ‘father has been spending oodles of money all over the country and probably paid representatives in every...

The North American Air Defense Command (NORAD) was a joint partnership agreement between Canada and the United States over the defense of North America from Soviet long range bombers. Cooperation between the United States and Canada was vital to the success of NORAD, however. In a letter to the assistant Secretary of Defense for international security affairs, John M. Leddy expressed his concerns...

The eyes of little girls widened everywhere, as they witnessed the TV debut of a beloved toy. Finally, there was a doll that resembled a “grown up girl” and not a baby. Already an icon of beauty by the time of her TV commercial, Mattel's marketing emphasized the dolls mature face and figure that had made her famous: “Barbie is small and so petite, her clothes and figure look so neat.[1]”...